There is good information in the chapter “On the Constitution,” from Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny, and I would like to give credit where it is due. Acknowledging the good information also helps with evaluating the misinformation later.
Levin starts out by describing how words matter. If you have been visiting The Middle Class Forum for awhile you know I have echoed that sentiment, as would any empiricist. Fuzziness in the meaning of words generally leads to a lack of validity and/or reliability in applying them. Given the words of the Constitution, along with words from some of the Founders, Levin is absolutely correct in stating that the Constitution was designed for “prudent” change, not paternal micro-management by the courts.
Levin provides information that some of the Founders were concerned with some of the early tinkering by the federal government, specifically referencing James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Of course, Levin also points out that the Founders linked private property with liberty. The Founders were wrong in this opinion, but Levin is absolutely correct to point out that this was their belief.
Levin is correct that the Supreme Court has played an activist role in tinkering with the Constitution. He points out that Supreme Court Justices, and judges in general, come from an academic elite. I previously discussed some of the problems with the academic stereotype Levin constructed, but he is correct that judges are, for the most part, academics.
Finally, I love Levin’s reference to a quip by William Buckley that he would trust the first 2,000 people in the Boston phone book before he would trust 2,000 academics from Harvard. I wonder what Ed Glaeser thinks of that comment or, for that matter, Bill O’Reilly.
All of this good information is presented to bolster what Levin wants us to primarily conclude from “On the Constitution.” Private property is one of those “ordered liberties” essential to a “civil society” that the Supreme Court and the New Deal tinkered with to our country’s detriment. Government’s role in institutionalizing the sanctity of private property over potentially opposing liberties should be upheld.
There is another side to this opinion, of course, which can be flushed out when one starts to examine the misinformation from this chapter.
Here is previous background material.
An overview of misinformation principles
A basic understanding of free markets
A basic understanding of property
Tags: Liberty and Tyranny
